Monday by Robert Weinstock

An interesting poem, I do not discuss rhyme often. This poem excels in making correlations between key and rhyming words. It is not clear if Robert Weinstock's knowledge of poetry improved, while writing this book.

As a free-verse poet, issues in rhyme are relatively negligible in my style of writing. Frequently, the idea is to produce the appearance of poetic elements as an allusion. Several Famous Rhyme Poets avoid making correlations between rhyming words; however, it is extremely entertaining and an additional layer of appeal to poetry.

One of the stanzas in "Monday" reads as follows:

Tuesday feels like lemon peels,
Though sometimes more like limes.
Tuesday also sometimes feels
Like clementines. Sometimes.

The grammar has poetic license, yet repetition of rhyming words establishes a definite emotion. The word "feels" is repeated twice and in association with "peels." Coinciding with the message of Tuesday being unpleasant, the day feels like peeling. It creates imagery of skin peeling after getting a sun burn. There is a sense of agitation.

The word "sometimes" is repeated thrice and in association with "limes." Though the keyword is "sometimes" it is repeated three-times, ergo, enhancing the importance of the statement. Paraphrasing this statement, "Sour sometimes, it is an overpowering feeling when feeling bitter on Tuesday."

The poem itself is bitter. Several rhymes enhance imagery of food. The early manifestation of frustration is slowly brought to a level of tolerance or pleasure by eating various meals. By the end of the poem, he is joyous and purging the food he has eaten all week.

Following the flow of miserable sentiments, there is actually a fun twist. Starting as moody and complaining, complaints reveal a pleasurable aspect to enjoying life.

It is true. A good meal that is bountiful, tasty or both makes life tolerable. It feels good to be overfull on occasion. Without feeling starvation, would anyone know they had overeaten?

Sometimes it is nice to eat one of my favorite foods or something that is not in my diet. It can turn a bad week into a pleasant experience.

Subtext is a great addition to any poem. Rhyme is an method to gain subtext. It is easy to see the flow and change in meaning until reaching an overall impression of the poem. These elements makes an agreeable impression on the Reader.

Quirky Books
Food Hates You, Too by Robert Weinstock

At Dawn the Virgin Is Born by Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega was a playwright, born in 1562. He is considered to be one of the greatest Spanish Authors in history with over 1,800 plays and 3,000 poems. Surprisingly, he is most notable for comedic verse, not religious prose. A person reading "At Dawn the Virgin Is Born" would easily imagine Vega as an orator.

Based on the nativity scene, Vega correlates Jesus' birth, at night, in the manger to the dawn of a new civilized world. With key phrase, "Banishing the night of our grief," repeated several times, the metaphorical premise identifies "old ways" as grievous compared to the modern age of the Sixteenth Century. Christ's life is the light of a new day. Interpretation is left to the reader. Light might symbolize spreading the Word of God, advancing civilization, spreading fellowship to the world or any number of events related improving life.

Focusing on the Madonna, "At dawn the Virgin is born and with her the sun," as the dawn. This creates a parallel between a mother giving birth to a child and our birth into the care of God.

That she may be
Mistress of heaven, this holy
Child lifts up
Her light, which is the dawn;

Empowering women, we clearly see the Madonna is revered and holy. Without her Jesus would not have been born or lived as he had to spread wisdom and die on the cross, before Christianity was spread to the world.

The third stanza reiterates and clarifies the statement by saying, "His to give he gives her; the dawn." He is God, giving to one whom in her beauty the warmth to produce a leader who would bring about massive global change. Emphasis between mother and child implies a passage of tradition through many centuries to younger generations.

With so few words multiple stories are told: the story of Virgin Mary being born, Christ's birth and development of Catholicism and Christianity. By choosing to focus on the Madonna, as opposed to Jesus, the meaning includes how we banish the night of our grief.

Quirky Books
Poems of Christmas by Myra Cohn Livingston

A Cauldron of Limericks by Patricia Hubbell

Often people underestimate literary prose associated to writing children books. Children books are a popular method for authors to get their first book published, yet modern parents have many standards. Adults write children's books, not children. Common belief is passive reading affects the subconscious. Parents do not want any incidental thoughts or premises from authors affecting children.

Parents reading and looking at these books are becoming critical as they look for hidden messages or accidental images in the background. Therefore, publishers heavily screen books. This collection of limericks is fun, because they are child appropriate and limericks are rare. Limericks are five or seven lines with a jaunty rhythmic pattern. In a five line limerick the first, second and third lines rhyme, while the fourth and fifth lines rhyme.

Traditionally limericks are separate from each other; instead of, building a cohesive story. An introductory limerick creates a platform for individual poems for individuals. As a Halloween book the individuals are ghouls, ghosts, bats and so-on. As a book for children it is funny thinking of a ghoul sobbing. It never explains why he sobs. Perhaps the corpse's brain is missing; however, it is not stated so parents are free to explain if their child asks.

The premise is quaint. Several are excellent; I enjoy the limerick about the Ghost and Goblin.

A Ghost from the town of LaFrance
Taught a Goblin named Rosie to dance.
As they waltzed to and fro
He trod on her toe
Which ended their budding romance.

Even without the illustration, it is humorous. When attempting to think of another image it is still amusing.

There is not much to think about metaphorically. This is the point of children books. Parents resent inappropriate messages. Artists specializing in children's art frequently edit their work until it is pure. The subconscious is strange and they do not want naked people, or worse, visible in paint strokes. Writers of children books also need to be equally aware to avoid writing more than what is on the page. Underlying messages must provide a solution that is reminisce of an innocent child's mind.

Quirky Books
Boo! by Patricia Hubbell

Halloween Hoodlums: Go Home! By Ogden Nash

Comical tone is created with one-dimensional traits of characters. Nash is the cynical old man telling kids to get off his lawn, while kids play pranks. There is also mention of traditional Halloween. Despite needling rants, there is a hint of respect or jealousy towards youthful antics. Even if it is an irritated rant language is blunt making it is easy to smile, "These are my glummer thoughts, but I have others that are not so glum. One of which is that too often the only visible part of the pond of youth is the scum."

The main complaint to rouse interest creates a premise between Saints and All Saints Day (an alternative name for Halloween). This technique is typically associated to essays; however, the nuance of authority creates the image of an old man or parent giving a lecture. These slight nuances move imagery through various events without long, winding descriptions found in stories and novels.

The authoritative stance provides information that All Saint's Day is an adequate name. After all the saints rest for labors, they are woken on Halloween. Maintaining the personality, he quickly narrates away from this idea to describe how when he was a child they played dignified pranks. Youth of modern times are vandals after declaring an opinion of understanding. "Despite nostalgia that increases with age, I don't insist that new ways are decadent and only the old ways are fit to venerate." Expressing both sides of the story is another method of rhetoric commonly utilized in debates.

Providing several images of pranks and trick-or-treating, he states the "bump in the night" is a child not a ghoul. He might prefer a ghoul. Trick-or-treating is reduced to training children to extort people through threats. Then Nash implicates children as befuddling elderly, taking advantage of their innocence and fragility, "Although they will on occasion help an old lady to cross the street by propelling her with their elbows off the sidewalk and into the gutter."

To the bitter end, he refuses to make the obvious statement, declaring all days should be restful for saints. Awkwardly, the intensity and blunt nature of information transposes a bitter statement into a clever platform to express fun interactions between everyone young and old on Halloween. This is one of the best nostalgic poems for Halloween.

Quirky Books
The Best of Ogden Nash by Linell Nash Smith